Question ROG Dark Hero new build; noob needs help please

[coyote2]

I haven't had a new BIOS in 17 years, and have never done a build before; I just plugged it in the for the first time today.

How do I boot to my ODD? For that matter, how do I access the motherboard's Boot Menu? F8 on startup? At first that didn't do anything, and I don't see anything in the BIOS telling me which key would reach a Boot Menu.

The BIOS recognizes my onboard SATA DVD drive, and a bootable USB stick (Linux Mint). But only the USB stick will appear under Boot Priority once I click F8 in the BIOS.

Once I plugged in the USB stick, F8 on startup gave me a Boot Menu (so maybe I cracked that mystery), but hitting Enter with the stick selected just takes me into the BIOS. (I can't figure out how to get the machine to boot to the USB stick from the BIOS either.)

Incidentally, if I could boot to the DVD drive my first step (before eventually installing Win10Pro) would be to check the brand new RAM for errors. The BIOS recognizes all four of my sticks of 32 GB 3600 MHz HyperX HX436C18FB3K4 RAM, but it sees them each as 8GB 2400MHz. While I was thinking of waiting to apply a RAM profile until Windows got installed, perhaps this isn't the optimal situation now to run Memtest in (given the BIOS seeing the sticks as the wrong size)?

Last I heard getting the 128GB to run at the 3600MHz the board QVL stated hadn't been easy for someone. Hoping to get the BIOS to 'see' the sticks' correct size, I set:

Extreme Tweaker|Ai Overclock Tuner to "DOCP Standard". Two DOCP profiles are offered, one at 3000 and one at 2667; I tried both and they do achieve 3000 and 2667 MHZ, but they still show the sticks are still 8GB each, so I went back to "Auto" and 2400MHz. (Before doing so I dumbly tried only manually setting the 3000 profile to 3600MHz period, but that didn't work of course; I got a loop of boots then into Safe Mode and disabled that mistake.)

I updated to the current 3204 x64 BIOS. The only setting I've modified is disabling Fast Boot. I've got a 5950x on the board; I do not plan to OC or void it's warranty.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Henry577]

Hang on, one problem at a time lol.

First of all, the boot menu key should be found in the manual that comes with your motherboard. Failing that it normally displays at the bottom of the screen when you power up.

Most BIOS have a way to set default boot devices anyway. Just set your disc or usb as the default boot device and install your OS. Then you can power off your pc and change default boot device back to your primary hard drive. Pretty sure my PC is still set to boot from disk lol, never changed it but there’s never anything in the disk drive to boot from, it always just defaults to the “secondary” boot device which is SSD containing OS.

 

[Henry577]

As for the RAM issue, are you sure your cpu and motherboard are compatible with such large quantities? I’m not too sure about the capacity side of things, but most motherboards I’ve been looking at recently aren’t compatible with anything more than 2600 MHz without Overclocking (I’m on a budget).

 

[coyote2]

Thank you very much for your reply, Henry! It was truly generous of you to reply, particularly given that I asked multiple questions which were further confused by the panic I felt. (I hear you WRT budget, I saved up for this for decades on my retirement budget!)

(Honestly, I was also proud that I got everything plugged in right and didn't bend any header pins. I carefully read the ROG Dark Hero motherboard manual cover-to-cover, but...)

The manual does not say what key to use at boot (let alone whether to hold or tap it) to reach the Boot Menu. It was only by extensive googling that I decided to try F8, which as I wrote did provide the Boot Menu (though I'm still not sure WRT hold vs. tap).

(It is otherwise generally a more helpful manual that I expected [although some diagrams were generic so didn't match my motherboard].)

So (to clarify) my question about the Boot Menu is 'why does selecting the bootable USB stick on it not work?' (As I said; when I press enter I just immediately see the BIOS displayed.)

But more immediately important to me (since my diagnostics programs are on ODD) is how can I get my ODD to appear in my BIOS' Boot Priority Options?

As for RAM compatibility, the manual (page vii) says that for Ryzen 5000, 128GB are supported up to 3200MHz without OC. And the QVL lists my RAM as working for 128GB at 3600 MHz (as I noob who has never even applied a RAM profile before, I was/am desperately hoping this could be as easy as applying the DOCP).

 

[coyote2]

Update: I created a bootable Win10 installer, and it did boot (from the Boot Menu, which I reached by tapping F8 on boot, so I guess I've learned I just need to tap it not hold it). I'm sorry I only tried one bootable USB before posting! However:

I remain mystified why my recognized-by-BIOS ODD can't appear on the Boot Menu.

I remain mystified about what to do with my RAM issue. I guess I'll post over on the ASUS forum (but wow, replies there are rare). I guess I'll also study every BIOS setting for an answer.

 

[Henry577]

Update: I created a bootable Win10 installer, and it did boot (from the Boot Menu, which I reached by tapping F8 on boot, so I guess I've learned I just need to tap it not hold it). I'm sorry I only tried one bootable USB before posting! However:

I remain mystified why my recognized-by-BIOS ODD can't appear on the Boot Menu.

I remain mystified about what to do with my RAM issue. I guess I'll post over on the ASUS forum (but wow, replies there are rare). I guess I'll also study every BIOS setting for an answer.

I’m glad to hear you worked out how to access your boot menu

What is really confusing is that it’s completely muddling up the capacity and clock speed of the ram. Where did you buy the RAM from?

 

[coyote2]

Thank you very much for your reply, Henry!

I bought the kit on Amazon, where it was sold by Amazon itself. (In December, so outside return window now thanks to shortages in other parts.)

I'll do some testing. See what happens with just one stick in different slots.

I'll make some bootable USB sticks to run various diagnostics on RAM and CPU.

(Thank goodness I can boot to them now.)

I wonder what I do if it doesn't become clear whether this RAM problem is a mobo or RAM issue.

(As for the ODD issue, I'll try an alternative ODD, on different SATA ports and in USB enclosures, to try to get to the bottom of the ODD not being bootable.)

 

[coyote2]

I think I have some answers. I think that the key evidence is:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php?file_id=48709552955445129918&t=4870955295544512991833858 (This link contains the full HWiNFO report in HTML, just in case someone wants to see it.)
From this it looks to me like the 128GB HyperX kit sold and shipped by Amazon was fake. (Well predicted, Henry!)

Any advice how to handle it (now, a couple weeks beyond the return window)? I'm thinking when I explain the parts shortage delay, and point out the fraud, they may send me another kit. But would it be another bad kit? Should I contact HyperX also/instead?

Details
When I saw this I was just about to pull the sticks out and test them one at a time in various slots. (Then I was thinking I might need to find a good shop with a DDR4 mobo to test one in.) But I don't see that's even needed now, since from the part numbers this fake kit of sticks are junk to me.

What I had already done was run Memtest86 on them (no errors, so the random 8GB sticks did work lol).

The Boot Mystery
It turns out that I didn't realize how smart the boot menu was and how little feedback it gave.

First clue was when I tried another optical disc, and the ODD showed up in the menu for the first time, but didn't boot. (My hypothesis is that the first optical disc I was using was bad.)

Now I think that when the Dark Hero fails to boot to the selected drive, it simply displays the BIOS with no error message. That seems to happen on all my old 32-bit bootable thumbdrives and optical discs. I've made a variety of bootable 64-bit thumbdrives and optical discs, and they boot perfectly.

 

[ChangeinPortland]

Hey , in order to get over the 2400MHz stock speed of RAM you need to go into BIOS and enable the XMP PROFILE. If you don't do it, it will only ever run at base 2400MHz sppeds. This will void your warranty technically, but they have no way to tell its been done, so just reset cmos if you need to get warranty service and NEVER ADMIT you used XMP. (They know its required to get the advertised RAM speeds but they use it as an excuse to screw you out fo warranty service, so screw em back I say.)

 

[coyote2]

Thank you for your reply, ChangeinPortland! I apologize for that my original post was so scattered that you could not see that I had already applied a RAM profile.
(DOCP on my mobo, not XMP.)

And the most alarming issue wasn't the terrible (and even after DOCP) improper speed, but that the sticks showed at 8 GB each instead of the 32 GB I bought.

My last post revealed my discovery that I'd been sold (on Amazon by Amazon) a fake kit.

I'm just about to communicate this fraud to Amazon and HyperX, and your advice to not mention DOCP is much appreciated, thanks!

 

[DSzymborski]

Do you have a link to the Amazon listing?

 

[coyote2]

Sure (I hope the forum lets me post it): https://amazon.com/gp/product/B089QSL19K/
None of the Reviewers were victimized by the scam.

It's OOS now, but it wasn't on Dec. 18. My invoice reads "Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC"; so it was not a 3rd party seller.

I'm thinking that someone at one of the companies (I'm guessing HyperX) stole the real 128GB kit and replaced it with these random 8GB sticks with the proper labels on the sticks and the packaging.

Er, I hope that's it. I guess it could be the Dark Hero, but I would guess if it mis-identified a kit's genuine four sticks, it wouldn't see them as three different stick model numbers. (I hope I'm right, it would totally suck to get a replacement kit and find out the Dark Hero is the problem.) Do y'all disagree? Should I (as I mentioned in my last post) find a local shop with a DDR4 board to see what it sees the sticks as?

 

[coyote2]

Update: Amazon accepted the RMA, but before mailing it I saw that these kits are sold out everywhere now, and found myself wondering if the kit I got could be AOK, and the problem (causing the sticks to be reported at only 8GB each and three different part numbers) actually be with my new motherboard. So just to be sure I dropped the kit off with a local shop so they could pop 'em into a DDR4 motherboard to see if it sees what my mobo sees. $60 seemed fair, I'll know in a day or two.